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  • 6/29/2025
Nobu examines culinary legend Nobuyuki Matsuhisa's empire, offering an intimate portrait of a man who has redefined glob | dG1faTRhazRVZG1GVTA
Transcript
00:00If you would ask people today, who is the emperor of Japan, they won't know his name.
00:08But everybody knows Nobu.
00:10There are a handful of people who have changed the way the world eats.
00:16Nobu.
00:17Nobu.
00:18Nobu.
00:18The greatest ever Nobu.
00:25All the famous restaurants closing, closing, closing.
00:28Then I opened this one.
00:30He had an interview in a famous magazine.
00:33And Robert De Niro approached him and said,
00:36This food was so special.
00:37I told Nobu, if you ever want to open a restaurant in New York, let me know.
00:42Nobu expanded globally.
00:44London.
00:45Tokyo.
00:46Dubai.
00:47All over the world.
00:48He's serving the most famous people on the planet.
00:52His restaurants are always booked, often months in advance.
00:55We had 300 people on the waiting list every day.
01:00But in the beginning, people did not believe he would stay in business.
01:05It was not a huge success at first.
01:08I don't know money, but I was very happy.
01:14It was really difficult, but I finally made my own business.
01:22Then my partner called me.
01:24Nobu, come to the restaurant.
01:26Fire.
01:26He really hit the lowest of the low.
01:35If it weren't for my mother, it would have been unbearable for them.
01:44She saved my life.
01:46In the 80s, I remember sushi being, oh, he made sushi chic, and he made it the thing that everybody wanted to eat.
01:55We're going to have our 30-year anniversary.
01:57It's not about fees.
01:58We're talking bigger picture.
02:01Oh, my God.
02:05Nobu created his own world.
02:08I said, oh, my God.
02:10Who comes up with an idea like this?
02:11The heart of it is Nobu.
02:16If that wasn't there, we wouldn't have any of this.
02:19The heart of it is Nobu.
02:19If that wasn't there, we wouldn't have any of this.

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